Brindlee Mountain Fire Apparatus LLC offers Christian witness

Many of the 37 employees of Brindlee Mountain Fire Apparatus LLC gather for a group portrait near some of the fire engines the company has for sale or are repairing. James Wessel, at center, is founder and president of the company he and other employees run as a Christian business. (The Huntsville Times/Kay Campbell)

And it's the small ones that scare him the worst, he said Monday, walking through one of 14 service bays of the company, which is one of the nation's, and probably one of the world's, largest source for used fire trucks and fire truck mechanics.

"It's in the most routine things that somebody can get hurt," Wessel said, recounting a small house fire he'd helped fight realizing - only after his foot had cleared it by just a few inches - that he had just stepped over a live downed power line.

But what scares him worse than fires, Wessel said, is the way that the day-to-day business of keeping the company profitable can eat at a man's soul.

"For me, with the day-to-day dealing with the dollars and cents and finance all day - I have to be careful that doesn't become the defining thing for me - and some days it does," Wessel said. "I'm far from perfect, and some days I realize I've spent more time reading financial reports than reading scripture. But this business is about more than dollars and cents."

Witness, not profits

The BMFA company website prominently features his guiding text from Micah 6:8: "He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

Their business cards includes the simple outline of the ancient fish design used by the first Christians as their mark. As a community service, the company houses and staffs during weekdays a community fire truck for the local volunteer fire department. And company employees are invited to gather at 7 a.m. the start of each work day to listen as one of them reads a scripture and then to share prayer concerns before they take up company business.

But the openness in their Christian witness is no marketing tool, Wessel said - after all, they have dealt with non-Christian customers in both the United States and in nations such as Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. The openness about faith and integration of it into their day and their work is to remind they themselves to stay on the path of faithful service.

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters . . . It is the Lord Christ you are serving," Wessel read from Colossians 3:23-24, turning to the well-used Bible he keeps beside his computer. "That's our goal."

And the results? Not, Wessel emphasizes, the fact that for its 10 years in existence, the company has been able to grow and prosper - Wessel is looking to hire three more skilled large truck mechanics now. That material success has nothing to do with their attempt to guide their business dealings, habits and interactions with others as a Christian business.

"If you come back in a year and see a 'bankrupt' sign on the gate, that doesn't mean God is not blessing this business," Wessel said. "Dedicating ourselves and our company to God does not increase the likelihood of any impact on the long-term financial prosperity. The Lord may continue to prosper us - and he may scatter us, whatever would be the best witness."

Terry Voss of Decatur walks her grandson, Bowdrie Swindle, then 18 months, of Elkmont past the fire trucks at Brindlee Mountain Fire Apparatus a few years ago. Visitors are welcome at the company, which emphasizes the importance of employees' commitment to families. (The Huntsville Times/Ellen Hudson)

Fair deals

Wessel's own witness in this particular business came as a personal surprise, he said.

His father, Fred Wessel, opened the first Burger King franchises in North Alabama in 1966. His mother, Jean Wessel Templeton, and brother and sister continue to run the 27 stores in this area, all surrounded with beautifully landscaped grounds that their father was convinced made people feel happy.

As a teenager, Wessel began working in one of the restaurants and fully expected to make his career with the family business after he finished his business degree at UAH.

But shortly before his father's death in 1996, he and his family moved to the Brindlee Mountain area. James began volunteering with the local fire department. A couple years later, Wessel was part of the group of volunteers who had to wrestle with a Florida company over honoring a warranty on a used truck they had purchased. The hassle left one of three fire stations on the mountain without a truck for a year - a potentially life-threatening shortage, and the firefighters feeling victimized.

Wessel was furious.

What on earth, he prayed through his anger, was God was trying to teach him through that experience? It was during prayer that he perceived what he has taken to be a leading from the Holy Spirit.

"Maybe this is an opportunity for you to move into this market and serve these fire departments the way they deserve to be served," he understood.

In July 2001, with a $10,000 loan from his mother - mom's give great interest rates, he said, smiling - he bought his first used fire truck. With some work, he was able to turn it around for a profit. A big profit.

Was it too big?

Wessel took his quandary to some Christian business leaders he considered mentors. They assured him that making a profit is not forbidden for believers in business.

"The question, they told me, is whether the deals were fair to everyone," Wessel said. "We had paid the price the sellers had asked, and we sold it for its fair market value. The point, they told me, is to make sure we are fair to everyone, and then that we are faithful in how we steward the profits."

James Wessel, founder and president of Brindlee Mountain Fire Apparatus LLC, says he needs to read the Bible as much as he reads financial reports to keep his perspective on the business. (The Huntsville Times/Kay Campbell)

Band of brothers

One way Wessel is faithful is that he has put himself on a salary along with the other employees. He makes $37,000 a year. Company profits go back into growing the business and supporting the community's full-time ambulance, round-the-clock ambulance service that the county has stationed in the company's first office.

Putting himself on salary helps make sure that he thinks like any other employee, he said: Considering what is best for the company, not what will pad his own pockets.

"It's what I can do to contribute to the mission and longevity of the company," Wessel said. "It's not 'my' company - it's God's. It belongs to all 37 of us."

That equality and sense of shared responsibility for all employees also helps with their personal lives, Wessel said.

"You don't have to read very deep in the newspapers to see stories about men in power making incredibly sad personal decisions," Wessel said. "But it feels like there's a group here who is going to pray for me, protect me - there are too many guys watching me, loving me, praying for me. If I started to make a bad decision, either personal or professional, I feel like somebody would throw down a penalty flag."

That's what firefighters do, he said.

"People have got my back, and I've got theirs," Wessel said. "Like in a fire. We know the brothers will take care of us."

Texts for Business Owners

Bible verses that guide and challenge James Wessel:

"He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8.

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters . . . It is the Lord Christ you are serving." Colossians 3:23-24.

"Give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may lead this people, for who is able to govern this great people of yours?" 2 Chronicles 1:10.

"Look at the nations and watch - and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told." Habakkuk 1:5.

"When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you." Deuteronomy 8:10.

"You may say to yourself, 'My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.' But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today." Deuteronomy 8:17-18.

"Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.'" James 4:13-15.

"For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." 1 Timothy 6:10.